El Desperado, Taichi & Yuya Uemura vs. SANADA, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Yujiro Takahashi

[5.0] "Also fun. Short, VERY slow but the HoT guys were not that lame like they usually are and Yuya v SANADA in the beggining was very cool. Taichi is a beast btw."

[4.0] "[2.0] A pretty boring match overall, with not much going on to keep me invested. That said, Yuya had some really good bits that made things more entertaining and improved the experience. Not a match I'll remember, but those moments helped make it a little more enjoyable."

[4.0] "The usual kind of boring match involving House of Torture. Desperado, Taichi and Yuya Uemura deserved better for this match. Also i really want to see Taichi in the tag league at the end of the year, with Yuya Uemura or Aaron Wolf, it could be so great."

[4.0] "[1.75*] Yeah, I get the purpose of this match and the tactics used to engage the crowd. But I'm definitely not a fan of House of Torture, for the most part. Yujiro is simply unwatchable these days, and SANADA remains SANADA (unfortunately). Kanemaru surprised me; I liked his performance. As for the babyfaces, I don't think I can single anyone out; they all inevitably ended up being overshadowed by HoT. That's fine--that's the focus--but a basic singles match between two Young Lions would have satisfied me more."

[5.0] "Not as offensive as it could have been. Some HOT shenanigans but it didn't take away from the full match. As long as this is what HOT is doing I'm fine with it."

[4.0] "[2.0*] Fine match, I didn't mind it. It was way cleaner than usual for a HOT match and it fulfilled its purpose. Taichi got the win here and challenged Gabe Kidd later on the show."

[3.0] "[1.75 Stars] Ya know, I think Yuya, Taichi and Sanada are all very talented in the ring. Despe is... fine... and Kanemaru & Takahashi have easily been two of New Japan's worst wrestlers for years. So whenever Yuya, Taichi or Sanada were in the ring, this was quite a solid wee match. When anyone else was involved though? Forget about it."

[5.0] "For a House Of Torture match with almost no cheating, it was a nice change of pace, but this is still just an under-card tag match. Some fun little Just 5 Guys lore here with its past members, but that's about it."

[5.0] "Another solid/ok match but I need to be honest: I didn't care about it. It was that common babyface x heel team match with some references to that Just 5 Guys stable but nothing that would be worth watching, honestly. C'mon, Gedo, give Yuya something to do..."

[5.0] "Fun match, specially considering the individual dynamics, but nothing too special. The bout started with Sanada and Uemura, and we were able to see cool things from this pairing, and then it transitioned to Desperado and Kanemaru sharing the spotlight, which was also cool and interesting because they were a tag team in the past. The HoT surprisingly didn't perform any shenanigans or lame angles during this one, and they were able to keep it clean, a workrate match - {**1/4}"

[5.0] "This one's fairly solid. Enjoyed the further teases between Taichi & Kanemaru and HoT's work on Despe's leg. **1/2."

[4.0] "I like the babyface team, I just couldn't bring myself to care about this. The work doesn't feature anything all that impressive."

[6.0] "Ultimately simple match where we got glimpses of Yuya's glorious wrist work, HoT working as a well oiled unit against Despy and Taichi, being the veteran showing that he was easily prepared for their usual antics as he continued to pressure Kanemaru. 2.75*."

[5.0] "A pretty standard heels vs. babyfaces tag match. We all know House of Torture matches aren't always the most enjoyable, but it was early in the show and Taichi got the pin. We'd see him again later in the show, but this was fine. It was fairly short, and like I said, it was only the second match of the night, so they just needed to get the crowd warmed up."